Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures; some may rival primates and even humans in their particular forms of brain power. Some can remember the locations of many thousands of stored seeds; others repeat thousands of different songs, or make their own tools. They also have highly developed social intelligence, play games, display a strong sense of fairness, and may even grieve. Science writer Jennifer Ackerman travels from laboratories in Barbados and New Caledonia to the great tit communities of Britain and the stormravaged mid-Atlantic coast, exploring the newly discovered brilliance of birds and how findings about the bird brain itself are revolutionizing our view of what it means to be intelligent.